The chorus of maidens praise the beauty of the bride.
I. THE PRELUDE.
1. The address. They address her as, "O prince's daughter." She is not a king's daughter, like the bride of Psalms 45:1-17, but she is of honourable extraction. Though she lived in the retired district of Lebanon, and had been brought up there in rustic occupations, her family was one of some distinction. So Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, was recognized by the angel Gabriel, and was known among men by the testimony of accepted genealogies as "the son of David." The bride always speaks humbly of herself (as in So Psalms 1:5, Psalms 1:6), but the daughters of Jerusalem praise her. Such praise was common at nuptial festivals, the literal translation of Psalms 78:63, "Their maidens were not given in marriage," seems to be, "Their maidens were not praised." The daughters of Jerusalem do not regard the bride with envy; they do not despise her because of her former low estate; they rather bring forward every point that may tend to her praise. We should be like them in this respect. Jealousy is one of the most common of evil tempers; even the Lord's apostles were jealous of one another, and that in the very presence of the Master; again and again they disputed among themselves which should be the greatest (Matthew 18:1; Luke 22:24). We must covet earnestly the blessed grace of charity—charity which "envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, cloth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. We must pray fervently, "From envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness, good Lord, deliver us."
2. The bride's approach. "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes!" The word here rendered "feet" more generally means steps; this has been taken as an argument in favour of "the dance of Mahanaim," mentioned above. It is used also for "feet;" but even if we take it in its more common sense, the words of the chorus may be well understood of the approach of the bride, and perhaps also of the queenly grace of her movements. The opening words remind us of the prophecy of Isaiah, quoted by St. Paul in Romans 10:15, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" (Isaiah 52:7). We have learned to see in the bride of the Song of Songs a figure of the Church, which is the bride of Christ. The mission of the Church is to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever the Lord commanded" (Matthew 28:19). The heavenly Bridegroom is with the bride while she obeys his precept; for he adds, "Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the ages." Therefore "the Spirit and the bride say, Come" (Revelation 20:1-15 :17). The Church, taught and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, calls men to the knowledge of Christ. Her feet are beautiful as, "shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace" (Ephesians 6:15), she moves ever onward, bringing the light of truth into the regions that were lying in darkness and the shadow of death. Missionary work is a most important part of the duty of the Church; when carried on in faith and love and forgetfulness of self, it is beautiful in the sight of God.
II. PRAISES IN DETAIL
1. Of her clothing. The chorus begins by praising, not simply the feet, but the sandalled feet, of the bride; they admire her sandals. From this we may infer that other terms used here relate rather to the clothing which covered the various parts of the body. It is the royal robes, with their ornaments and embroidery, which are like rows of jewels, or like a round goblet (see the word translated "round" in Isaiah 3:18, where it is rendered, "round tires like the moon"), or like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. Comp. Psalms 45:9, Psalms 45:13, Psalms 45:14, "Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir." "The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee." So the bride, the Lamb's wife, shall be "arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints" (Revelation 19:8). "The king's daughter is all glorious within." The Hebrew word, indeed, means "within the palace," in the inner apartment. But we know that the adorning of the Church, when she appears "as a bride adorned for her husband" (Revelation 21:2), is "not that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but the hidden man of the heart" (l Peter Psalms 3:3, Psalms 3:4). She will then be all glorious within, in the spiritual sense of the word, a glorious Church, holy and without blemish; and the Christian soul must even now put on that white linen which is the righteousness of saints, with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. Indeed, "our righteousnesses are but as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6); but Christ "of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness" (1 Corinthians 1:30); and St. Paul teaches us that "as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27). We must "keep ourselves pure" (1 Timothy 5:22); we must take jealous and anxious heed so to live in the faith of Christ and in the communion of the Holy Ghost as to keep that white robe unspotted from the world (James 1:27). And if we have marred and stained it, as, alas! we too often do, by carelessness and sin, we must come to God in humble penitence and confession, asking him to give us grace to wash our robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb; for we believe that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin, and that even they who have fallen into grievous sin may, if they turn to God in sorrow and contrition, be made "whiter than snow" (Psalms 51:7). The king's daughter must be all glorious within; she must put on the wedding garment of righteousness. Let us seek that costly robe to be our own; we may gum it through the. grace of Christ if we earnestly desire it, hungering and thirsting after it.
2. Of herself. Her neck was white as the ivory which King Solomon imported and used largely for purposes of decoration (1 Kings 10:18, 1 Kings 10:22); her eyes in their liquid beauty were like the pools at Heshbon; her brow stately as the tower of Lebanon; her head beautiful as the summit of Carmel; her hair like the deepest shade of Tyrian purple—the king (the chorus continues) is held captive in its tresses. The beauty of the bride is a stately, regal beauty; her neck and her brow are compared to towers, her head to the mountain so famous in the history of Elijah. So in the Book of the Revelation, when the angel had said to St. John, "Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife," "he carried me," the evangelist continues, "away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God" (Revelation 21:9, Revelation 21:10). Here, again, the bride, which is the Church, is compared to a city, a city built upon an exceeding high mountain, according to the Saviour's prophecy, "Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). St. John dwells in ardent words upon the heavenly beauty of the bride, which is the city of the living God; he tells us of her stately gates, of her vast dimensions, of her jewelled foundations, of her "streets of pure gold as it were transparent glass." The glories of that heavenly city draw the Christian soul mightily with a constraining power, as King Solomon was held captive in the dark tresses of his bride. The Lord "loveth the gates of Zion" (Psalms 87:1); the heavenly Bridegroom loved the Church, and gave himself for it. Christians, taught by him, set their affection on the heavenly city; they love to meditate upon its glories; they count its towers and mark its palaces, the many mansions in our Father's house; confessing that they are pilgrims and strangers here, they seek the continuing city, which is to come. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14).